Coin-operated liquid-dispensing machine



Jan 6, 1931.

R. E. COLLINS 1,787,723

COIN OPERATED LIQUID DISPENSING MACHINE I 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed June 9,1928 R.E.C0llins GH meg Jan 6, 1931. R. E. COLLINS COIN OPERATED LIQUIDDISPENSING MACHINE Filed June 9, 1928 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 R.E.Collins 1/ ZW attozweg Patented Jan. 6, 1931 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE,

ROBERT'E. COLLINS, F TOPEKA, KANSAS, ASSIGNOR OF'ONE-FOUR'IH TOCONSTANTINE G. CHUMOS, OF TOPEKA, KANSAS COIN-OPERATEDLIQUID-TDISPIEIYI'SIITG MACHINE Application filed June 9,

lhe present invention relates to improvements in coin operated automaticliquid dispensingmachines, and has for an object to provide a gasolineor other liquid vending machine of the general type shown and describedin my co-pending application, Serial No. 25%,098, filed February 13,1928, in which the device is operably associated with a coin controlledmechanism so arranged and con nected that the vending mechanism maydeliver a predetermined quantity of the liquid only after the insertionof a proper coin in the coin controlled mechanism.

Another object of the present invention is 16 to provide a liquiddispensing device in which the use of an attendant is entirely'dispensedwith, and whereby the liquid may be dispensed automatically by themachine, for instance at night after the gasoline station is closed.

A further object of the invention resides in providing an improvedliquid dispensing machine in which the action is under the control of acoin governed mechanism having as apart thereof a device toautomatically make change.

A still further object of the invention is to provide, in connectionwith a liquid dispensing or other machine, a coin controlled mechanismand associated change making device, in which the change making deviceis subject to adjustment for repeatedly delivering a fixed sum in changeupondeposit of a coin of predetermined denomination.

Other objects of the invention are to provide a coin controlled devicewhich can only be operated subsequent to the insertionof a coin withinthe device, and only by means of the coin; to provide means whereby apredeafter an initial coin of predetermined denomination has beenproperly inserted in the machine and only after the machine has beenoperated to cause deli very of the quantity of liquid for which it isset; to provide a liquid dispensing machine and a coin controlledmechanism, individually and collectively of .50 simple and compactconstruction associated termined amount of change or coins of smallvalue will be delivered to the operator'only 1928. Serial No. 284,037.

in a novel and compact manner for simple and ready operation.

WVith the foregoing and other objects in vi'ew,the invention will bemore fully described hereinafter, and will be more particularly pointedout in the claims appended hereto.

In the drawings, wherein like symbols refer to like or correspondingparts throughout .the several views,

1 Figure 1 shows a side elevation, with parts broken away and partsillustrated in section, of a gasolineor liquid measuring anddistributing machine, and a coin operated controlling mechanismtherefor.1

Figure 2 is a top plan View of the coin operated cont-rolling mechanismfor said machine with certain parts shown in section.

Figure'3 is a vertical sectional view of the controlling mechanism takenon the line 3-3 of Figure 1 and looking in the direction of the HlIOWS}.s i

Figure 4 is an ei'ilarged detail side view, with parts broken away andparts shown in section, of the change making mechanism or coindelivering apparatus, and

Figure 5 is an enlarged sectional detail showing the electrical contactsemployed for closing a circuit by means of the coin.

Referring more particularly to the drawing, 10 indicates the groundlineor surface or a. gasoline filling station conventional for automobiles,Numeral 11 indicates upright supports or legs, and 12 a housing which isadapted to surround the mechanism and prevent unauthorized persons fromtampering with the interior arrangement of its parts; it beingunderstood that the fragment of the housing 12 which is shown iscontinued upon all sides of the machine. Numeral 13 indicates acylindrical container or measuring device mounted upon the support orlegs 11, said container preferably being formed of transparent glass. 14and 15 respectively indicate the bottom and top of the member and 16indicates a vent hole cap. The numbers 14 and 15 are preferably formedof metal. 17 indicates a graduated scale termed upenthc Wall ofthememher 13, its graduations denoting gallons oi dicates a conduit pipeadapted to conduct the air from the compressor engine to the tank 18,the latter being preferably placed above the ground. 20 indicates apipeleading from the pressure tank 18 upwardly for purposes later described.The pipe 20 is provided with a pressure reducing "valve 21 shown indotted lines, which is adapted to reduce the pressure of the storagetank to a pressure, of say, thirty pounds to the square inch.

Numeral 22 indicates a pipe leading from the. mechanism abovethe groundto a small auxiliary tank 23, whichzis placed below the ground. Theupper ends of the pipes 20 and 22 are adapted to have communicationwitheach other by opening a valve 24.

A pipe 25 is connected with the bottom oi: the auxiliary tank 23 and isconnected to the bottom of the measuring device 13, and is provided witha check valve 26. A pipe 27 is attached to the bottom of the measuringdevice and is in communication with an outlet pipe 28 at desired timesand at other times said communication is cut oti by means of a valve 29;The pipe 28 is in communication with a flexible hose 30whic-h isprovided with a nozzle 31..

The measuring device 13 is in communication at all times with anover-fiowpipe 32. The pipe 32 extends downwardly and is in communicationwith a gasoline or liquid storage tank 33 which is preferably locatedbelow the ground and is of large capacity.

Within the over fiow pipe 32 a bucket 34 is placed. The bucketisprovided witha plurality of small apertures 35 w iich extend throughits bottom portion in a. manner whereby liquid contents placed withinthe bucket will gradually seep through or leak through said apertures.The bucket is suspended upon a wire 36 which extends through theoverflow pipe 32. Tue valve 29 is provic ed for cutting oii the flow ofliquid from the member 13 to the hose 30. 7

About the overflow pipe 32 is placed a housing 39 which is attachedtothe bottom 14; of the measuring device 13. The housing 39 encirclesthe overflow pipe 32 in a manner whereby leakage of gasoline from themember 13 will be prevented. The interior diameter of the housing 39 islarger than theexterior diameter of the overflow pipe 32'and in thespace thus formed a tubular. adjustable member 10 is loosely positionedwhereby it is adapted to have vertical reciprocating movement. A rod ilis attached'to the bottom of the tubular member40 and extends outwardlyof the housing 39 anddownwardlyfl akage at this point being prevented bymeans of a packing ring 12. Upon the lower end of the rod 11 andexteriorly of the sides of the housing 12, a handle 43 is provided. Anadjustable indicating finger 4 is mounted upon the rod 41. At anyconvenient point, such as upon the .side wall of the device or a legthereof, an indicating scale 45'is provided. The graduations of thescale 4-5 correspond with the graduations of the scale 17 formed uponthe measuring'vessel 13. Adjacent the scale 45 lugs are provided asshown at 46 whereby upon the placement of the indicating finger 44 uponsaid lugs, the adjustable tubular overflowpipe 40 will be heldandprevented t'rom downward movements. A housing 47 for the valves 24 and29 is provided. The housing is provided with achamber 48 which is incommunication at all times with thepipe 20 and a second chamber 4-9 islikewise in communication with the pipe 22.

The valve 24; is attached to its stem 50 by any suitable means and itwill be understood that when the stem 50 is moved outwardly thatcommunication will be established between the pipes 20 and 22. A vent 51is provided upon the valve housing 47 whereby communication with theatmosphere is at all.

times established with an interior chamber 52, of the valve.Communication between the chambers-i9 and 52 may be prevented at desiredtimes by means of a valve 53 which is slidably and. loosely mounted uponits valve stem 50. .It will be noted that upon a movement of the valvestem 50 that the valve 55 will seat and cut 05 communication between thechambers49 and 52 since the valve 53is provided with a spring 5 1- whichwhen the stem 50 is moved upwardly, is of greater resistance than thirtypounds, air pressure.

The spring 54 is provided with a pin or keeper 55, said pin beingmounted through the stem p;

The valve 29 s adpistably mounted upon its valve 29 at the other end, orbeing otherwise 1 so disposed as to return the valve stem 50 toward theright, or to the posit on lndicated in Figure 1, which is its normalposition.

A fiat or other spring 37 is carried by the end portion of areciprocating rod 71 and bears against a lever for the. purpose ofnormally holding up the receptacle 3%, which is connected to the lever60 through the wire 36. p The l-ever6O is pivoted, as indicated'at 61,upon the end portion of the reciprocating actuating shaft or rod 71; andsaid le ver is provided with an upstanding lug 62 in the path of thehead 58, said lug having abeveled face'at one side and an abrupt rightangular face at the other side.

At is shown a housing for the coin controlled mechanism, which may beattached any suitable manner and by any suitable means to'the'liquiddispensing machine. The

dog 74 will descend bygravity into flocking engagement with the shaft'71v and prevent its operation. The dog 74 constitutes an armature or isconnected to the armature, for an electromagnet 76, positioned above, orad- ]acent, the dog and supported within the housing 70 in anyappropriate manner. This electromagnet is arranged to be energized byabattery or other source of current indicated at 78. through the circuitwire 77, by which the battery communicates directly with theelectromagnet, and the wires 79 and 81 which connect the other side ofthe battery with the w opposite side of the electromagnet through thecoin 84, when such coin reposes in the coin chute 83. This constructionis'more particularly shown in Figure 5, in which and 82 representbinding posts connected respectively to theelectrical contact plates 86and 85'which are electrically connected with the bindingposts andtherefore with the circuit wires, but which are insulated from thesurrounding walls of the coin chute.

The plate 86 may be curved at its lower or inner end to interpose anobstacle to the free passage of the coin and to retain the coin inposition across the plates 85 and 86 until such time as the coin isforcibly dislodged. The plate 86' is also preferably pivoted an-dassociated with a spring 87which holds the plate in the position, shownvin Figure 5, until the applied force referred to is exercised'to rotatethis plate and dislodge the coin, whereupon it will fall into thebottom: of the casing 70orinto a suitable coin depository. placetherein. Any suitable means maybe provided for ejecting the coin 84 frombetween there- I silient contacts 85 and 86, the means shown in theinstant case consisting of" a finger 88',

which is pivotally attached to the shaft '71:,"

as shownat 89; As illustratediin Figure 1, the finger 88'is-in a normalpositiomwhich position it occupies before" the shaft 1 is moved; and itwill be understood that=,:when the operator moves the shaft 7loutwardly, the sharplowerpoint of the finger 88'will'be moved-to theopposite side ofthe coin '84 and that, when the shaft 71 returns to anormal position,influenced by the spring 7 2, the finger 88 willpry ormove the coin 84 outwardly from between the contacts 85 and 86 it beingunderstood that the coin 84 makes a close fit within the slot, andthatthe upper edge of the-contact 85, as shown in Figure'2, is-slotted in amanner to permit thesharp lower edge of the finger 88 to. come incontact with the coin 84. V v

Upon the shaft 71, an outwardly projectmg arm 90 is provided, sodisposed as to strike one arm of a'bell crank lever 91 pivotally mountedupon a shaft 92 supported within the housing 7 O. I Theother arm of thebell crank lever is attachedto a rod 93. The upper end of the rod 93 iscoupled to an arm 94 rigid upon ashaft 95 pivotally journaled within thehousing by any suitable means, such as shown at 96; A plurality of arms98 are adj'ustably secured .to the shaft 95, as by theset screws 99,whereby the arms may be 89 shifted angularly about the shaft, as forinstance shown in the full and dotted line position in Figure 4. 7 l

These arms98 are arranged to'operate the change making mechanism, whichis of a conventional form in use today by street-car conductors and thelike; It consists primarily of one ormore tubular members 100 forcontaini-ng stacks of coins 101. Thesetubular members are supported fromthe side walls of the housing by shelves 102. Thell'ast coin upon thebottom of each stack is adapted to be moved outwardly by the followingmechanism, which is the same for each change makingdevice. I i

The push member 103 slides along the shelf ranged to bear upon the arm107 for the purpose ofv returning the slide 103and connected parts toianormalposition which is toward the-wall 70in Figure 4. The member 103 isshifted outwardly to dispense a coin from the holder 110, as follows Alever 110 is pivotally mounted, as at 1 11 to a fixed part or casingwall and bears against the arm- 107 at the point m (Figure 4*) at theside opposite that engaged the spring'1- O9Q The lever 110 'is adaptedto loosely'encircle the'coin container 100 and is provided with anoutwardlyextending portion 112' situated in'the path of the respectivetappet or finger member 98. One such tappet or finger member 98'- isprovided for the lever ofeach' change making mechanism;

The dispensed'chang'e 101 drops from the sincethemembers 98 aresecuredtpthe. shaft 95 by means of the set screws'99, themotion of the shaft oractuating rod 71 .will be communicated to the members1112.

A downward movement of one or. all of arranged so that the coins 8 1introduced into the members 98 will cause a corresponding downwardmovement of the lever 112 for ejecting a coin from the holder'lOO. Theseholders 100 may be in any suitable number such as for holding stacks ofpennies, nickles, dimes and quarters. V The operation is as follows VAssuming that the dispensing mechanism has been set and locked by thefilling station attendant so that it will dispense no more and no lessthan five gallonsof gasoline during one operation, as heretoforedescribed in my coepending application above referred to; and furtherassuming that the current price i or value of five gallons of gasolineis ninety- 'machine for the night.

five cents; and assuming that a customer drops a silver dollar in thecoin chute 83,'then this silver dollar represented at 84, completes acircuit through the electromagnet 76, energizing the magnet and causingit to attract its armature or looking dog 7 4 out of locking engagementwith the slot 7 3 of the actuating rod orshaft 71'enabling such rod orshaft to be pulled outwardly by the customer engaging the handle 57 Thediiference between the value of the deposited coin, namely one dollar,and the value of the gasoline being five cents, the. machine willautomatically make change for this amount and deliver such changetotheexterior of the machine, or in other words to the externalreceptacle picked out by the cus The operation of the tappet 98 forthemrious change making units from the movementof therod or shaft 71 hasalready been described. These'dogs, arms or tappets 98 may be all-set inthe raised position indicated in dotted lines in Figure 4, with theexception ofthat particular dog 98 which registers withthefive centstacks of; coins. In this s. manner, a downward movement of the rod 93will'cause one coin,'denomination five cents, tobe ejected for each pullof the shaft or rod 71 and no coins from the one cent, tencent ortwenty-five cent stack of coins will be dispensed,since the dogs 98 forthe latter are in the raised position, such dogshaving been raised andset-screwed in this position by the gasoline station attendant when heset the It's obvious that .the machine mayi be set bythe operator, sothat it will" dispense any selected coin, or any selected number ofcoins for each pull of the shaft 71 in accordance with the. retail priceof gasoline. I

It will be understood that coin testing de vices not shown, may beutilizedwith the device, if preferred, andthat the coin chute or slot 83maybe. curved or shaped in a manner whereby, an unauthorized personwould be preventedfrom inserting a piece of metal other than a coin intothe slot for closing the circuit. V

Itis also obvious that the device may be and over-flow pipe 40 and looksit in the adjusted position for the night, so that a pre determinedquantity, for instance five gallons, of gasoline can bedispensed by themachine for each pull upon the operating rod or shaft 71. v

WVhen the shaft 71 is pulled out, the lever 61 is moved so that the lug62 strikes the head 58 and. shifts the'valve stem 50 to the left openingthe valve Qetand closing the valves 53 and 29. Thereupon, compressed airfrom the receptacle 18 passing through pipes 20 and22 will lift thegasoline through the pipe 25 to the measuring receptacle 13 as stated inmy previously mentioned co-pending application. This gasoline will risein the measuring receptacle 13 until it reaches a volume of five gallonswhereuponit will beginto overflow thepipe This overflow will bepartially caught in the receptacle 34 and when sufficient weight ofgasoline accumulates in the receptacle 34 to out-weigh the load of thespring 87., the lever will bev pulled down withdrawing the dog 62 fromengagement with the head 58. The coil spring 59 will'then return thevalve stem andvalves to the normal position shown in Figure'l.Themeasured quantity of gasoline in the measuring device 13 willthenflow "out the hose into the vehicle tank. Indonot wish to berestricted to' the size,

form, and proportions of the various parts, a I

and obviously changes could bemade in the construction herein describedwithout departing from the spirit of the invention, it

being only necessary that such changes fall within the scope of theappended claims What is claimed is I 1. In a change-making device, anoperating member, a pin on the'operating member, a bell-crank leverpositioned to be moved by said pin, a rock-shaft, an arm ontherockshaftfa link connecting-said lever andshaft,

magazines for coins, and means operable from said rock-shaftfor ejectingcoins from said magazines. j

2. In achange-maki-ng device, coin magazines, slides to eject coin fromthemagazines, pivoted arms connected to said slides, spring means actingon the arms to hold the slides in an initial position, levers engagingsaid arms, tappets for striking said levers and operating means for saidtappets.

3. In a change-making device, coin magazines, a shelf spaced below themagazines, slides movable along the shelf beneath the magazines, pivotedarms coupled to said slides, spring means acting on the arms to hold theslides in an initial position, slotted levers extending about said armsand spring means and bearing against the arms to move same together withthe connected slides, and selectively-adjustable tappets for strikingsaid levers.

4:. In a change-making device a casing, a shelf therein, coin magazinesabove the shelf, slides movable along the shelf beneath the magazines,links coupled to the slides, arms pivoted to the links and to thecasing, springs fixed in the casing and bearing against the forwardedges of the arms, slotted levers fulcrumed in the casing and bearingagainst the rear edges of the arms, said levers extending about the armsand springs, and selectively-adjustable tappets for actuating saidlevers.

In testimony whereof, I have affixed my signature.

ROBERT E. COLLINS.

